WEBVTT 00:01.685 --> 00:09.194 Okay, so we come back together to have a talk on the Dhamma and do group meditation. 00:11.938 --> 00:16.563 And we'll continue today with a discussion of the Mangala, the blessings. 00:20.428 --> 00:28.418 So the Mangala, just to recap, these are things that, these are those things that protect our practice. 00:30.524 --> 00:39.816 that dispel all evil, dispel all dangers, and dispel all difficulties in our practice and in our lives. 00:41.478 --> 00:43.701 Manga, manga are things that are evil. 00:46.264 --> 00:50.710 And la is that which dispels them and destroys them. 00:53.795 --> 01:19.144 So the next one in the order is, the next stanza that we have is Garo voja ni vato voja santutthi ca gathanyuta karenadhamma savanangetamangadamutma Garo vo means respect, ni vato means humility. 01:20.423 --> 01:22.165 Santuti is contentment. 01:22.887 --> 01:24.469 Katanyuta is gratitude. 01:26.612 --> 01:28.174 Kalena dhamma savanam. 01:28.515 --> 01:32.280 Listening to the dhamma at the appropriate time. 01:34.503 --> 01:35.745 Etamangalamutamang. 01:35.765 --> 01:40.812 These are the greatest blessings, or highest blessings. 01:46.310 --> 02:00.876 These ones are very much a description of the meditator, or a description of an enlightened being, the enlightenment of the Buddha and the Arahants. 02:06.172 --> 02:07.853 And it's important to understand them. 02:07.914 --> 02:14.239 Otherwise, we think of them simply as some tradition or some cultural baggage. 02:15.140 --> 02:24.728 And we hear respect, and we think, well, this is just the sort of thing that you would expect from a religious culture, where they have to pay respect to each other. 02:27.451 --> 02:32.175 You have to bow down to someone. 02:32.235 --> 02:35.858 means respect in general, and the Buddha had 02:37.019 --> 02:41.143 a list of things that we respect in Buddhism. 02:41.624 --> 02:42.465 This is the Buddha. 02:43.666 --> 02:52.875 So we have our utmost respect for the Buddha, the enlightened one who has laid down these teachings, who has discovered these teachings and passed them along to us. 02:53.957 --> 02:56.299 We have utmost respect for the Dhamma. 02:56.319 --> 02:58.121 This is the teachings that he's passed on. 02:59.622 --> 03:01.204 We have respect for the Sangha, 03:02.720 --> 03:12.352 This is the enlightened disciples of the Buddha who have continued the passing on of the Buddha's teaching. 03:12.372 --> 03:28.252 We have respect for the training, the training itself, the practice that we undertake. 03:28.772 --> 03:32.457 We have respect for heedfulness, 03:34.563 --> 03:37.697 and we have respect for hospitality. 03:40.268 --> 03:43.763 These six things are the kinds of respect that we 03:45.312 --> 03:47.134 try to cultivate in the Buddhist teaching. 03:47.154 --> 03:49.117 So it's actually quite an array of things. 03:50.959 --> 04:06.038 In general, just to put it in brief, respect means to take things seriously, to not play games or to think of this as some sort of game or something, to think lightly of those things that are worthy of respect. 04:08.178 --> 04:16.153 So you see, when we practice meditation, the first thing we'll do is a paying respect meditation. 04:17.495 --> 04:20.721 In one sense, we do this mindful prostration. 04:20.841 --> 04:25.009 In one sense, you can think of it as actually paying respect to the practice. 04:25.750 --> 04:29.477 It means reminding ourselves of how important this is. 04:29.497 --> 04:32.262 And so we actually pay respect to the practice as a practice. 04:35.633 --> 04:38.096 So going in order, we have respect for the Buddha. 04:40.138 --> 04:47.886 This was obviously more important when the Buddha was alive, and it's something that would be of utmost importance for someone who's following the Buddha. 04:47.906 --> 05:04.003 But even today we can see how important it is to know who the Buddha was and to understand what an important person he was and how important his life was to us. 05:05.570 --> 05:11.557 and to understand the importance of the nature of Buddha. 05:14.760 --> 05:29.957 Because, of course, this gives us a figure, a role model, a leader to follow, and someone, as you find in any religious tradition, someone who new meditators can cling to as they pull themselves up. 05:29.937 --> 05:46.292 and who old meditators can take as an example and strive to maybe not reach the level of attainment of the Buddha, but at least to strive to act according to his instruction. 05:48.787 --> 05:50.751 So we take everything the Buddha said seriously. 05:50.771 --> 05:52.294 We take his injunctions seriously. 05:52.314 --> 05:55.561 We take his rules and regulations seriously. 05:56.343 --> 05:58.527 And we take the practices that he taught seriously. 06:00.191 --> 06:05.462 We take the Buddha himself quite seriously, that he was someone who 06:06.792 --> 06:11.820 is worthy of remembering, someone who is worthy of respect. 06:11.840 --> 06:20.955 And so actually in Buddhist countries they will bow down to the Buddha image as a means of paying respect and remembering the greatness of the Buddha. 06:21.035 --> 06:25.863 Mainly because this creates, this cultivates wholesome qualities in the mind. 06:25.883 --> 06:31.973 It creates faith, not necessarily in the Buddha, but confidence in what you're doing. 06:33.472 --> 06:57.741 The idea is not to create some kind of faith that the Buddha is going to save us, but it creates confidence in the fact that the teaching we're following was laid down by someone who truly knew the nature of reality, was able to understand it for themselves, was able to see through the delusion, to see through the illusion of 06:59.830 --> 07:06.376 concepts and understand ultimate reality, to understand the true nature of reality. 07:06.396 --> 07:23.412 Someone whose mind was perfectly pure and someone who had great compassion in teaching, who spent an incredible amount of time developing his perfection so that he would be able to lead. 07:23.432 --> 07:29.297 The Buddha was our leader, and in that sense he is a very important person. 07:30.458 --> 07:34.406 because of how difficult it was for him to develop that. 07:34.446 --> 07:43.203 The fact that what he did was something very difficult to do, just to be able to lead people. 07:43.243 --> 07:51.640 When the Buddha became enlightened, one of the first things he thought was that he wouldn't teach because he saw how difficult it was. 07:52.717 --> 08:00.993 He thought to establish his religion and to establish a community of practitioners would be incredibly difficult. 08:03.619 --> 08:13.999 It was only through being asked and being reminded that surely there would be some people who could understand and who could practice according to his teachings. 08:15.042 --> 08:23.710 Did he change his mind and accept the invitation and set out to teach those people who were willing and able to listen? 08:28.694 --> 08:42.467 Respect for the Dhamma means respect for his teachings, respect for the practice, taking the practice seriously, not simply practicing when it appeals to us or 08:44.540 --> 09:03.267 when it is convenient, but trying to practice the rules and the Dhamma and the Vinaya all the time and as best we can, fulfilling, bringing the practice, bringing the training, bringing the Buddha's teachings to fulfillment. 09:03.287 --> 09:05.390 Never looking down upon the teaching. 09:05.670 --> 09:10.918 Looking down upon the Buddha and looking down upon the teaching, this is something that we take quite seriously. 09:11.320 --> 09:29.751 And so you have to be quite careful when you're criticizing the teachings that we have laid down, because if we develop in our mind the view that this teaching or that teaching is not right or not what the Buddha taught or so on or not correct, 09:32.161 --> 09:36.368 then it can be equivalent to saying that the Buddha was wrong. 09:36.909 --> 09:57.342 I received a correspondence with someone today who explained to me that something in one of the suttas was incorrect, something quite core and central to one of the suttas, and said it's not correct to say that in the sutta, and he assumed it must have been a mistake. 09:57.625 --> 10:03.252 Immediately I thought in my mind that this is quite a dangerous position to hold. 10:04.153 --> 10:08.859 Because basically what you're saying is what is presented as the Buddha's teaching is not correct. 10:08.960 --> 10:10.121 It shouldn't be taught like that. 10:11.583 --> 10:21.035 And so why we have to be very careful with this is not because we want to be blind, we want to have blind faith in these things, but because we simply don't know ourselves. 10:22.076 --> 10:26.502 And we can't claim that we ourselves understand the truth of things. 10:27.578 --> 10:41.935 And so we should be very careful when we criticize what is presented as being the teachings of a fully enlightened being, unless we're pretty, pretty sure and have done a lot of self-reflection. 10:43.096 --> 10:48.322 And meaning in the sense that we have come to purify our own understanding first. 10:50.324 --> 10:57.012 Because 99% of the time when we criticize someone else's teaching, it's because of the 10:57.295 --> 11:00.240 the defilements in our mind and the misunderstandings in our mind. 11:00.461 --> 11:19.776 We can misunderstand a practice or we can be attached to our own cultural practices or the practices that we've become accustomed to, and those practices can be wrong, those ways can be wrong, and so we find ourselves criticizing. 11:19.992 --> 11:28.069 another teaching or we criticize a sutta even, criticize the suttas, criticize the vinaya, criticize the commentaries. 11:29.131 --> 11:34.963 Even criticizing those ancient commentaries on the Buddha's teaching is very dangerous because it might very well be 11:35.720 --> 11:37.142 how the Buddha meant it to be. 11:37.162 --> 11:43.032 And just because it doesn't agree with our idea of how things should be doesn't really mean that much. 11:43.052 --> 11:54.471 Because of course we're just one more commentator and we're in far less of a position to comment than these ancient commentaries, for example. 11:55.801 --> 11:59.446 But we should be very careful not to cling to our views. 11:59.486 --> 12:07.237 We should be respectful, even if we don't maybe even agree, because our lack of agreement doesn't make these things wrong. 12:09.060 --> 12:14.147 The Buddha taught us to let go of our views, to let go of our opinions and to follow along. 12:15.865 --> 12:29.622 according to the teaching that's laid down, to see the truth, to practice in a way that conforms with our experience, rather than how we think things should be. 12:32.369 --> 12:34.071 So the teaching here is very important. 12:34.111 --> 12:41.923 And it's important not to have a light mind about it, that it's something that we can take on when we want as a hobby and give up when we want. 12:43.144 --> 12:46.770 Or to let culture, for example, get in the way. 12:46.850 --> 12:54.561 So here we're often confronted with this conflict of trying to separate what is Buddhism and what is culture. 12:56.584 --> 13:01.110 And whereas we want to be able to fit in with the culture when we're 13:02.407 --> 13:03.309 confronted with it. 13:04.271 --> 13:21.563 It can happen that the culture actually conflicts with the Buddha's teaching and then we have to be very careful to be able to separate and to take quite seriously and have enough respect for the Buddha's teaching to keep the Buddha's teaching even when it flies in the face. 13:22.606 --> 13:25.150 of some culture, as best we can. 13:25.571 --> 13:31.441 Of course, there may be times where we simply can't, due to laws or so on. 13:32.463 --> 13:37.211 We can't go off and live in the forest in a country where such a thing is illegal or so on. 13:38.774 --> 13:41.298 But for the most part, the Buddhist teaching is very simple to keep. 13:42.200 --> 13:45.846 There are very few, if any, examples I've found that 13:47.007 --> 13:48.609 make it impossible to practice. 13:50.010 --> 13:54.195 But it will never accord perfectly with any culture. 13:57.358 --> 14:02.183 Because all culture comes from the idiosyncrasies of human beings. 14:02.624 --> 14:09.631 So in the end, our practice as Buddhists will have to come out of society and come out of culture. 14:10.632 --> 14:15.057 This is why we have to build up forest monasteries and so on. 14:17.298 --> 14:21.164 And out of respect for the Buddhist teachings, we do come out of the culture. 14:21.385 --> 14:39.475 We shouldn't try to conform the Buddhist teaching or adapt the Buddhist teaching to a culture for the purposes of being able to practice or being able to live what we think is the Buddhist teaching inside of a society, for example. 14:40.990 --> 14:49.062 We have to come out of our society, come out of our culture in order to embrace the Buddhist teaching fully in an ideal situation. 14:49.102 --> 14:55.091 Of course, lay people, ordinary people living ordinary lives can incorporate the Buddhist teachings into their lives. 14:55.151 --> 15:02.943 But out of respect for the teaching, we should never try to adapt the core teachings. 15:04.084 --> 15:09.192 We can just conform to the teachings as best we can while living our lives. 15:10.960 --> 15:20.009 We should understand that the teachings themselves require us to take them on with our whole heart. 15:22.232 --> 15:23.533 And the third is the Sangha. 15:23.553 --> 15:27.357 This is paying respect to the enlightened disciples of the Buddha. 15:27.377 --> 15:37.407 You could even say it means paying respect to the unenlightened disciples of the Buddha, those people who have passed on the theoretical teachings. 15:39.445 --> 15:59.575 But most important here is to be very respectful to those people who have practiced and who seem to have gained some sort of attainment in the Buddha's teaching. 15:59.615 --> 16:02.079 We should have respect for such people. 16:04.582 --> 16:07.647 We should try to learn from them and we should try to take them as an example. 16:11.440 --> 16:13.962 Number four is respect for the training itself. 16:15.784 --> 16:20.028 So this means respect for morality, respect for concentration, and respect for wisdom. 16:20.729 --> 16:22.191 We should never look down on any of these. 16:22.231 --> 16:30.419 There are some people who will look down on morality and say, you don't really need to be a moral person, you just need to practice the teaching. 16:30.519 --> 16:33.802 Morality is only guidelines or so on. 16:33.822 --> 16:39.928 So people will actually take alcohol or will 16:43.874 --> 16:48.180 be rather loose with even the basic and fundamental precepts. 16:49.257 --> 16:53.563 and they won't really understand the true benefit of morality and the true necessity of it. 16:54.364 --> 16:58.149 And so they can be considered not to have perfect respect for the teachings. 16:58.169 --> 17:03.457 Some people actually look down on concentration and will say that all you need to do is to see clearly. 17:03.477 --> 17:05.119 You don't have to sit in meditation. 17:05.139 --> 17:10.967 You just have to think about and ponder on the Dhamma and try to realize the teachings in your daily life. 17:11.047 --> 17:14.512 And so they'll look down on the idea of practicing meditation. 17:17.075 --> 17:19.078 Others will look down on the teachings on wisdom. 17:20.375 --> 17:35.397 not understanding or thinking it to be intellectual activity, to think that the Buddha is teaching on the Abhidhamma, for example, or on ultimate reality. 17:35.377 --> 17:48.735 as some kind of later creation, or that it's not really necessary, that one should just develop concentration, and the concentrated mind will lead one to enlightenment. 17:49.777 --> 17:54.904 So they don't have the respect for the Buddha's teaching on wisdom. 17:54.884 --> 18:02.311 or they don't have an understanding of the true wisdom, and they think that wisdom and concentration are very much intertwined. 18:04.072 --> 18:11.999 And so they wind up developing great states of peace and calm without going the next step for wisdom. 18:12.059 --> 18:15.882 And these are just to point out that we have to avoid all of these extremes. 18:15.962 --> 18:19.245 We have to be careful to have great respect for morality. 18:19.506 --> 18:23.389 The Buddha said we should find fear in the slightest fault. 18:23.369 --> 18:30.456 Even the minor fault, we should see the danger in it. 18:31.737 --> 18:38.203 Because there are many rules and regulations that, on the face of them, don't seem to be immoral. 18:39.023 --> 18:40.865 The using of money, for example. 18:41.205 --> 18:51.655 In a monastic community, monks aren't allowed to touch money, aren't allowed to buy things, aren't allowed to even hint or ask for things. 18:53.457 --> 19:03.049 And people will think that this is, at least the using of money would be quite actually a convenience for monks. 19:03.650 --> 19:11.139 And it's certainly not directly immoral to touch paper and plastic and metal coins and so on. 19:11.159 --> 19:13.322 There's nothing intrinsically immoral about it. 19:14.664 --> 19:20.511 And so they won't have this kind of respect and you'll find monastic communities that actually do use money and so on. 19:21.757 --> 19:36.188 But what you'll find is that in such communities there is a real busyness that ensues where the monks are holding bank accounts 19:37.484 --> 19:57.940 working to gain money or even having salaries and working and even to the extent that they're fighting over money and arguing and bickering and engaging in actually evil pursuits in order to gain money. 20:02.054 --> 20:18.870 And so out of respect for the community, out of respect for the communal harmony, and out of respect for the purity of the Buddha's teaching, we keep even these seemingly harmless rules, because there are many benefits to them, apart from just the benefits to our practice. 20:18.890 --> 20:20.333 They have many communal benefits. 20:22.608 --> 20:41.075 and they have benefits for the purity of the Buddhist teachings so that people, when they come to see the monastic community, they're able to understand correctly and they don't have wrong ideas about the monastic community, that monks can have jobs or that monks can drive cars or that monks can wear lay people's clothes or so on, these kind of things. 20:42.818 --> 20:47.485 They will be able to understand that these are really and truly people who have left society behind. 20:49.287 --> 20:54.391 respect for concentration, we should have respect for meditation practice. 20:54.411 --> 20:57.574 The word may not be concentration, you can think of it as focus. 20:58.615 --> 21:00.437 Focus means we have to focus our minds. 21:00.577 --> 21:18.973 We can't expect to become enlightened in daily life if we don't seclude ourselves, if we don't focus our intentions, focus our mind, and keep our minds from, or restrict our minds 21:21.350 --> 21:27.681 the range of the mind. 21:28.162 --> 21:32.489 We have to restrict the range and keep the mind focused on the four satipatthanas. 21:32.570 --> 21:35.014 I've said this is like our pasture. 21:35.575 --> 21:37.098 This is our corral. 21:37.999 --> 21:39.662 We have to restrict our minds to this. 21:40.250 --> 21:50.627 So this means taking the time to do mindful prostration, to do walking meditation, to do sitting meditation, taking the time to restrict your activities. 21:51.929 --> 22:06.493 And rather than trying to develop mindfulness as best you can while doing ordinary activities, we have to come back to very simple activities, walking back and forth, sitting still, even lying or standing meditation. 22:07.942 --> 22:21.976 to restrict the range of the mind and to keep it as simple as possible, so that we can begin to learn from very basic principles. 22:21.996 --> 22:26.301 Respect for wisdom means we have to have respect for the goal of the practice. 22:26.521 --> 22:31.646 We can't be content simply with states of peace and calm that come from the meditation. 22:32.407 --> 22:33.628 We can't be content with 22:34.992 --> 22:39.055 the bliss of seclusion or the happiness that comes. 22:39.556 --> 22:50.345 People will even become content just by being monks and content with living in a meditation center, be content with the peace that comes from living in this place. 22:53.347 --> 22:58.632 They'll become content with their own views and opinions and so on, and they won't be willing to give them up. 23:00.894 --> 23:04.797 And so we have to be able to go the next step to find wisdom 23:06.599 --> 23:16.310 How you know about whether you have wisdom or how you recognize the wisdom is that wisdom is what changes the mind, what changes your behavior. 23:17.992 --> 23:24.620 It doesn't just augment or support our views and our opinions and our ways of behavior. 23:26.662 --> 23:28.084 Wisdom is never content. 23:28.739 --> 23:35.549 wisdom is the parting from our old ways, parting from our conditioning. 23:37.431 --> 23:47.525 So it's something that should surprise us and should really make us reflect and make us change, rather than simply reassuring us in our ways. 23:49.768 --> 23:53.494 This is where the Buddha was talking always about impermanence, suffering and non-self. 23:53.954 --> 23:56.458 These are things which are very shocking when you actually see them. 23:57.139 --> 23:58.020 The realization 23:58.490 --> 24:03.746 that what you're clinging to is impermanent, or that you're clinging to things that are impermanent. 24:04.729 --> 24:11.790 Because during the time that we're clinging, we don't realize that we're clinging until we see that we're clinging, and we're able to let go of it. 24:16.867 --> 24:20.352 respect for the heedfulness, respect for appamāda. 24:20.933 --> 24:22.475 This means respect for mindfulness. 24:24.057 --> 24:29.826 It's a little bit different from the respect for the training, which is the training in morality, concentration and wisdom. 24:29.846 --> 24:36.816 This means respect or taking seriously the moment-to-moment practice that we do to develop morality, concentration and wisdom. 24:36.796 --> 24:48.670 The only true way to develop these things is not through reading books or through taking on practices or through walking back and forth or through reflecting, but it's through moment-to-moment mindfulness. 24:49.832 --> 25:04.930 If we're mindful and we're mindful from moment to moment to moment, the morality is when we bring our minds back to the present moment, when our minds have wandered and we pull them back or our minds want to wander and we're able to keep them with the present object. 25:06.698 --> 25:08.901 It's when we... 25:08.921 --> 25:10.182 This is morality. 25:10.803 --> 25:14.728 Once we're able to keep the mind with the object, this is concentration or this is focus. 25:15.128 --> 25:19.374 When the mind is clearly aware of the object. 25:19.474 --> 25:27.043 And then the clear awareness of the object, the understanding of the object, the seeing the object simply for what it is, this is wisdom. 25:28.925 --> 25:32.069 So the way to develop these is moment to moment to moment. 25:32.089 --> 25:34.292 And it's to be mindful of 25:35.470 --> 25:36.231 every moment. 25:36.792 --> 25:51.270 And so the respect for this means to be guarding it, as we might take care of a sleeping child, guarding our mind. 25:51.290 --> 25:58.560 And for a moment, we're not letting our minds lose the rhythm of the practice. 25:58.580 --> 26:02.845 So every moment, watching our minds to keep it on track. 26:04.242 --> 26:13.282 And number six is just an important reminder by the Buddha to have respect for hospitality. 26:13.983 --> 26:20.918 When new people come to be hospitable and to show them to their rooms and to teach them how to practice and to... 26:20.898 --> 26:50.483 take care of them while they're here and so on to be hospitable to visiting monks and to be hospitable to visiting lay people and to this is something that we have to remember as a community that when people come to visit here we have to respect and welcome them to our community Buddha said we should always think that may those may those 26:51.661 --> 27:00.953 well-practiced individuals who haven't come yet, may they come, to be keen to have new people practicing in the right way. 27:01.514 --> 27:15.171 And for those people who are practicing correctly, who are maintaining the communal harmony and the peace, and who are practicing the teachings wholeheartedly, may they stay, may they continue here. 27:16.619 --> 27:18.666 So this is what it means to be respectful. 27:18.686 --> 27:27.996 It means to take these things seriously and to take our practice, most of all, to take our practice seriously. 27:29.292 --> 27:32.076 Niwata actually relates to the core of respect. 27:32.116 --> 27:33.899 Niwata means wind. 27:35.060 --> 27:36.222 Wata is air. 27:36.583 --> 27:39.286 And ni means out. 27:39.306 --> 27:41.450 So it means not full of hot air. 27:42.711 --> 27:43.913 Niwata. 27:43.933 --> 27:45.295 It's a word that means humility. 27:46.256 --> 27:49.601 And so on the face of Garo, when you think of Garo, it's respect. 27:49.661 --> 27:57.072 So it means having respect for each other and respect for other people, for our seniors and for our teachers and so on. 27:59.330 --> 28:05.137 And so in that sense it goes along with niwata, which means humility. 28:08.021 --> 28:24.281 But niwata in particular is the giving up of conceit and the giving up of pretenses, the giving up of some fake sense of righteousness, that I am right and I know the truth and so on. 28:24.301 --> 28:27.345 To give that up and to be humble and to be accommodating 28:28.895 --> 28:34.786 and to be able to give up our views and opinions. 28:39.274 --> 28:43.081 Nivata, as a meditator, is most useful for relating to one's teacher. 28:44.424 --> 28:47.730 One should treat one's teacher, the Buddha said, like a fire. 28:48.925 --> 29:03.471 like the sacrificial fire, because if we cultivate it and if we keep it burning and are respectful towards it, then it will bring us great benefit. 29:03.711 --> 29:08.520 The Hindu people would believe that by keeping the fire going, it can help you go to heaven. 29:09.631 --> 29:12.815 It can lead you in a good way, or it can even lead you to enlightenment, they would say. 29:13.496 --> 29:16.159 So in Buddhism, this is our sacrificial fire, is the teacher. 29:17.460 --> 29:25.951 It's the person that we respect and we cultivate, and we care for, or it just means that we respect. 29:26.091 --> 29:31.918 So this is how it has to do with Garo. 29:31.938 --> 29:39.587 But when relating to your teacher, it's very important to have niwata, to not be full of pretentiousness, or to think that you know everything. 29:40.833 --> 29:46.881 And to be willing to consider the fact that you might be wrong, even when you disagree with your teacher. 29:47.301 --> 29:50.786 And also to put aside your prejudices as well. 29:52.268 --> 30:00.158 Because it may be, if you think of the case of Sariputta, Sariputta took several people as his teachers who were actually very inferior to him. 30:01.589 --> 30:04.312 in the sense that when they taught him something, he would respect them. 30:04.332 --> 30:09.176 He would hold up his hands in anjali and respect them. 30:09.196 --> 30:13.280 There was a novice once who pointed out to him that his robe was crooked. 30:13.961 --> 30:18.545 He let his robe slip down, and one corner of it slipped down, because monks have to wear their robes even all around. 30:20.106 --> 30:21.348 And it was just as he was walking. 30:21.388 --> 30:27.073 Of course, he was about to lift it up, and the novice caught him first and said, Honorable Sir, your robe is hanging down. 30:27.714 --> 30:31.377 Sariputta adjusted his robe immediately and held up his hands to the novice. 30:31.998 --> 30:33.219 and said, thank you, teacher. 30:34.421 --> 30:35.422 That's the story that we have. 30:44.252 --> 30:48.096 And so we have to be humble. 30:48.697 --> 30:52.040 We can't try to press our views strongly on other people. 30:53.021 --> 30:54.063 This can cause problems. 30:55.104 --> 30:58.107 But when we have a teacher, 30:58.272 --> 31:10.037 or when we are living in a monastic community, for example, and there are rules and regulations, then we can't be full of hot air 31:10.439 --> 31:24.635 go against these or stubborn about them, going against the rules and regulations of the community or the rules and regulations of the Buddha, stubborn in our resistance to the Vinaya, stubborn in our resistance to the teachings. 31:26.076 --> 31:40.412 This is the case often when people come to practice meditation and we tell them to do walking and sitting, we tell them to use this mantra or this word to be mindful, to continuously practice, and then we'll give them various stages of practice. 31:41.017 --> 31:45.583 And it often comes that there's a conflict in the meditators, that they want to practice in a different way. 31:45.783 --> 31:50.949 Some people want to practice at the nose, and they'll say they're not comfortable practicing at the stomach. 31:52.331 --> 31:59.700 Some people don't want to do a lot of walking meditation, and so on. 31:59.720 --> 32:09.032 And there can arise a great amount of hot air building up inside, righteousness, feeling that you... 32:11.105 --> 32:14.271 the feeling of resistance to the teaching. 32:14.833 --> 32:16.376 And this is dangerous for the student. 32:16.396 --> 32:21.165 The best thing is when we take a teacher, that we go along with the teaching. 32:21.987 --> 32:24.572 When we come to a meditation center, that we follow their way. 32:25.234 --> 32:31.847 The Buddha said when a new person comes to, when a new monk comes to a monastery, they should learn about the 32:32.907 --> 32:49.971 rules and regulations and even the customs and traditions of that monastery, and try to follow along with that community, seeing how does that community behave, how do they practice, what are their rules and regulations, and so on, and try to follow. 32:52.347 --> 32:55.291 So actually there's two levels of this. 32:55.331 --> 32:58.855 There's the communal harmony, but then more importantly is the practice. 32:58.875 --> 33:04.542 Most important is that when you take a teacher, you have to have respect and dedication to their teaching. 33:07.125 --> 33:09.628 And of course towards other people. 33:09.708 --> 33:12.171 Another level is just to the people around you. 33:13.213 --> 33:19.080 So when we're in a monastery, we shouldn't try to hold ourselves up above others that we're special in some way. 33:20.090 --> 33:32.522 We should all pull our weight in the community and try to, or in the meditation center, we shouldn't go about trying to teach other people or explain to them what is the right way of behavior. 33:32.582 --> 33:40.470 If someone takes us as their teacher, then this is pot and kosher and correct. 33:41.691 --> 33:45.895 But we shouldn't go around thinking that we know the best and therefore we can teach everyone and so on. 33:46.752 --> 33:49.636 which often happens, especially in large meditation centers. 33:49.656 --> 33:52.400 People will go around picking on the other meditators. 33:53.841 --> 34:02.133 Meditators will come, and new meditators will come, and the old meditators will go around bothering them, really. 34:02.573 --> 34:06.178 And then sometimes you'll get five or six different meditators each telling them different things. 34:07.660 --> 34:11.108 And then they'll come to their teacher and say, all these people are telling me different things and what do I do? 34:12.191 --> 34:16.120 It's very important in the meditation center to only really follow one person. 34:16.962 --> 34:20.169 And it's very important for us not to try to go out of our way to teach people. 34:21.513 --> 34:26.344 Whoever that person is reporting with, then they should go to that person for advice in the practice. 34:27.893 --> 34:42.591 Of course, it doesn't mean that if people do come to us for advice, technical advice, then it is proper for us to say, well, if we know the answer and if it's a technical answer, to just say, well, walking meditation, you're supposed to keep your eyes open, for example. 34:42.611 --> 34:45.775 If someone says, should I keep my eyes open in meditation? 34:45.795 --> 34:49.800 You can say, yes, yes, you should, because we know these are things that we know. 34:50.995 --> 34:56.563 but going around trying to impress your views on the other meditators. 34:56.803 --> 35:01.690 This means in a communal sense, when we're meditating somewhere. 35:04.454 --> 35:09.701 You see this in Thailand sometimes, it's quite noble actually, where senior monks will come. 35:09.982 --> 35:18.133 I had a senior monk come, he was the head of a district, and he came to practice and he was sent to practice with me because our head teacher was busy. 35:18.586 --> 35:20.392 And he actually wanted to bow down to me. 35:20.432 --> 35:28.697 In the beginning, he didn't even let us know that he was the head of the Ampur, the head of the county. 35:30.770 --> 35:36.079 Until I asked him, I said, how many years have you been a monk? 35:36.099 --> 35:39.204 He said, like 25 or something like that. 35:39.224 --> 35:41.148 I said, oh no, please don't bow down to me. 35:43.031 --> 35:44.413 I shouldn't be bowing down to you. 35:44.774 --> 35:52.086 I mean, as a teacher, it is possible to allow for that, but I don't think it would have been really proper. 35:53.568 --> 36:00.859 There was another case where there was this one monk who was just an old monk, and he came to chanting every morning, very quiet, and stayed to himself. 36:01.960 --> 36:06.747 Just seemed like some old monk who was from Bangkok or something. 36:07.849 --> 36:16.962 And then this other monk who was a bit of a loudmouth, he came, and he's a very outspoken monk, and he's actually quite famous, I think. 36:16.982 --> 36:20.487 He came to visit the monastery as well, and he announced in the chanting, he said, 36:20.467 --> 36:21.588 You know, this is amazing. 36:21.628 --> 36:22.850 Here we have this monk here. 36:23.390 --> 36:25.173 This guy is the head of... 36:25.193 --> 36:31.120 He was some very, very important monk, very high up in Bangkok monastic hierarchy. 36:32.401 --> 36:36.125 I think head of a kate or something, head of a Bangkok district. 36:37.046 --> 36:38.028 One of the very high monks. 36:38.809 --> 36:46.918 And he said, here he is, totally not even letting us know who he is, coming to practice meditation. 36:48.380 --> 36:49.461 And I thought that was quite nice. 36:50.791 --> 37:07.372 These are good examples of when we go to a meditation center to just follow along and do our thing, practice, and not try to stand out or so on. 37:07.392 --> 37:08.173 Niwato. 37:09.796 --> 37:11.217 Santuti is number three. 37:11.237 --> 37:12.799 Santuti is a very good one. 37:12.819 --> 37:13.580 It's very important. 37:14.602 --> 37:17.946 It's something that we always have to remember as meditators. 37:18.466 --> 37:20.768 Remember it on many levels. 37:21.268 --> 37:23.310 Santuti means contentment with whatever you get. 37:23.530 --> 37:32.418 Contentment with your robes, contentment with your food, contentment with your lodging, contentment with medicines. 37:33.259 --> 37:36.802 So robes, you see many people have commented on the fact that I've changed my robes. 37:39.204 --> 37:41.425 Well, my old robes had worn out, so I needed new robes. 37:41.505 --> 37:45.129 And these are the color of robes that they wear here, so I changed the color of my robes. 37:45.629 --> 37:48.051 Being content with whatever is available. 37:49.364 --> 37:53.231 Even the Buddha said we should be content with rag robes. 37:54.052 --> 37:57.960 Of course, in modern times, rag robes are actually more difficult to find. 37:57.980 --> 38:02.327 In Buddhist countries, anyway, rag robes are more difficult to find. 38:02.568 --> 38:04.411 I would say in general they're more difficult to find. 38:05.213 --> 38:13.127 Because when you do come across cloth that has been discarded, it's generally cloth that has some sort of flowery pattern on it or something. 38:13.580 --> 38:20.770 or else it's synthetic and it's some pink or blue synthetic that you can't dye. 38:22.112 --> 38:28.682 It's very rare to find cotton cloth that can be dyed some dark color that's appropriate for a monk. 38:28.702 --> 38:31.405 Not like the Buddhist time when everything was just simple cotton cloth. 38:33.889 --> 38:37.274 And so we're content with whatever robes that we get and they're very easy to find. 38:37.334 --> 38:39.537 Content with food means 38:39.601 --> 38:40.842 to be content with alms food. 38:41.423 --> 38:44.065 Be content with whatever we get on our alms round. 38:45.106 --> 38:48.730 I often, for myself, I try to just stick with whatever I get in my bowl. 38:49.110 --> 38:56.938 I think that's a good practice, to not even go to the kitchen and look for extra food, whatever you get put in your bowl, to just take that. 38:56.978 --> 38:59.281 There was a story in the Jataka, it's a really good story. 38:59.961 --> 39:06.528 It's something that I don't think as monks we can emulate, but just to show how much contentment is possible. 39:06.568 --> 39:08.730 The Bodhisatta was born as a 39:08.930 --> 39:11.454 as a dark-skinned person in particular. 39:11.534 --> 39:18.947 And this was important for the Jataka because the way he lived was just under a tree or deep in the jungle. 39:19.548 --> 39:24.436 And he made a determination to just be completely content with whatever he got. 39:24.496 --> 39:28.883 So he wouldn't move from his sitting mat. 39:28.903 --> 39:30.786 He wouldn't move from where he was. 39:30.766 --> 39:33.289 He would take whatever was within reach. 39:34.130 --> 39:36.052 If leaves fell on the ground, he would eat the leaves. 39:36.993 --> 39:41.598 If there were little shrubs growing, he would eat the shrubs. 39:41.658 --> 39:43.260 If there were mushrooms, he would eat the mushrooms. 39:44.221 --> 39:50.308 Or whatever came from the tree, maybe he would reach up and pluck some leaves off the tree. 39:51.369 --> 39:55.474 The idea was to just be completely content with whatever was most easy to find. 39:55.454 --> 40:00.903 So maybe he would get up, and of course he'd have to get up to go to the washroom to relieve himself. 40:04.248 --> 40:11.459 But he would just take whatever was in the trees around him, leaves or flowers or berries or so on. 40:13.202 --> 40:21.495 And so anyway, the story goes on to how the king of the gods came down, and Indra came down, or Sakka came down, and 40:22.032 --> 40:31.365 said to him, oh, look at you black guard, you dark person, and living like this, what do you hope to accomplish? 40:31.425 --> 40:32.466 And he said, I'm not dark. 40:32.586 --> 40:33.748 There's nothing dark about me. 40:34.789 --> 40:42.640 Here I am living a perfect light life, a life of brilliance. 40:42.620 --> 40:45.885 Then he said, you can't judge people by the color of their skin. 40:47.367 --> 40:48.449 And the Jataka goes on. 40:48.469 --> 40:55.319 It's a very interesting story and very inspiring because Indra becomes, Saka becomes so impressed with him, he offers some wishes. 40:56.201 --> 40:57.803 Okay, I give you a boon. 40:57.903 --> 40:59.085 I am the king of the gods. 40:59.105 --> 41:02.350 Whatever you wish for, ask and I will give it. 41:02.330 --> 41:06.515 And his wishes are things like, may no being be harmed by me. 41:07.055 --> 41:08.257 This is the wish that I have. 41:08.998 --> 41:14.524 May I be perfectly content and never have any evil wishes. 41:14.965 --> 41:19.270 Never have wishes for anything greater than what is most easy to find. 41:20.391 --> 41:21.893 So this was the bodhisattva. 41:21.913 --> 41:24.956 This was the practice of the person who later became the Buddha. 41:25.357 --> 41:31.003 And it was through cultivating contentment in this way that he was able to become a fully enlightened Buddha. 41:30.983 --> 41:47.983 So to some extent we should try to emulate this, to take whatever it is that we have, to not be concerned, overly concerned with our health or with the quality of our food, or to be concerned with the calorie intake or protein intake or so on. 41:48.263 --> 41:55.692 If you think of these examples of the Buddha or even enlightened disciples who went off and lived in the forest and would eat very, very minimal food, 41:57.157 --> 42:05.152 When we were at Jomtong sometimes, as I was talking about before, sometimes all we would get on alms round would be sweets. 42:05.773 --> 42:12.105 And so, whereas normally you'd want to pull the sweets out and you'd take just the stuff that is really nutritious for you. 42:12.546 --> 42:17.916 So that would end up taking out all the sweets and all the really fatty stuff and deep fried stuff and sugary stuff. 42:18.976 --> 42:21.380 Now it was, which sweets are the most nutritious? 42:22.222 --> 42:25.067 And so, okay, you're still allowed to separate them. 42:25.567 --> 42:28.112 But now you have to separate from what you have. 42:28.152 --> 42:29.454 And it really teaches you something. 42:30.376 --> 42:34.683 Some days not getting anything on alms round and just being content and living like that. 42:36.707 --> 42:41.575 There was one monk we met in Colombo and he was explaining about alms round in England. 42:42.449 --> 42:58.716 And he has a really good technique of making it clear to people that he wasn't begging and yet gaining people's sympathy so that they would give him something small that would keep him alive. 42:58.736 --> 43:02.702 And so when people came up to him and asked him, what are you doing? 43:02.902 --> 43:04.464 And sometimes they'd want to give him money. 43:04.504 --> 43:06.226 They'd think, oh, here's someone who needs some money. 43:06.286 --> 43:09.330 Maybe he's just standing there and he needs something. 43:10.111 --> 43:12.735 So they would try to bring him money and say, oh, no, I don't take money. 43:12.795 --> 43:13.736 I only take food. 43:15.218 --> 43:18.101 I'm just trying to get my one meal for the day. 43:19.363 --> 43:22.147 And they'd say, oh, and what happens if you don't get any food? 43:22.948 --> 43:25.551 And he said, what I tell them is, then I'll eat tomorrow. 43:28.012 --> 43:31.758 And this was something that, of course, really impressed the people. 43:31.818 --> 43:34.201 It's something that's quite perfect. 43:34.221 --> 43:35.403 You have to be on that level. 43:35.463 --> 43:45.559 You have to be careful that you're not hinting, especially on the alms round, or trying to make it clear to people that somehow you need food or so on. 43:46.660 --> 43:52.349 You can be honest with them and tell them what you're doing, but to say, well, if I get food, I'll eat. 43:52.389 --> 43:53.531 If I don't get food, I'll eat. 43:53.551 --> 43:54.492 Maybe I'll eat tomorrow. 43:58.657 --> 44:00.065 and contentment with lodging. 44:00.929 --> 44:05.393 So we have to be content with whatever lodging we get. 44:09.524 --> 44:20.560 There's something that can be said here for lay people as well, that often we think that we need to get some mansion or the house of our dreams or so on. 44:21.081 --> 44:34.621 You see this, when I was living in America, it was quite a saddening story of how many people lost their homes mainly because of greed. 44:34.682 --> 44:39.008 And it was also on the side of the people who just bought without thinking. 44:39.545 --> 44:42.988 There were people giving away very cheap loans for wonderful houses. 44:44.350 --> 44:52.258 And then it collapsed and the job market collapsed and many people lost their homes because they had so much. 44:52.918 --> 44:57.783 You have to blame it somehow on their greed, their desire to own the house of their dreams. 44:59.265 --> 45:01.327 Not being content with the house that they had or so on. 45:01.567 --> 45:05.451 People buying second houses and then not being able to afford it when they lose their jobs and so on. 45:08.620 --> 45:20.516 So for laypeople this has a very important lesson for us to be content with the dwelling that we have and to be content with very little. 45:20.536 --> 45:27.886 I mean, what you need to live is just, in Zen they say, half-mad awake, full-mad asleep. 45:28.066 --> 45:29.548 This is what you need as a dwelling. 45:33.241 --> 45:34.723 And this goes for lay people as well. 45:34.884 --> 45:46.563 You may need more than a full mat because you need a place to put your clothes and your suit and your work clothes and a place to have a washing machine and a place to have a kitchen and so on. 45:47.024 --> 45:50.490 So you need basic necessities. 45:51.567 --> 46:04.909 What's really amazing is to see how meditators, how lay meditators live, and how they're able to do away with so much of the junk and so much of the luxury in their dwellings that ordinary people have. 46:05.910 --> 46:15.145 But this goes even more for meditators or monastics, people who are undertaking a meditation course. 46:16.407 --> 46:19.673 And it can come up quite strongly for a person in their meditation practice. 46:19.853 --> 46:29.912 During their practice, they'll become quite discontent with their lodging and they'll feel like it's too small or it's too this or too that, the colors are wrong and so on. 46:29.932 --> 46:34.821 They'll become claustrophobic or they'll feel like the monastery is not suitable for them. 46:34.801 --> 46:41.931 the mind will come up with a thousand different problems with your lodging, with the place that you are. 46:43.013 --> 46:46.518 And so contentment is very, very important, much more important for monastics. 46:46.858 --> 47:02.901 There's a story of Sariputta who was coming to see the Buddha, and so he came, and when he arrived at the monastery where the Buddha was staying, he heard from the other monks that there were no rooms available, that all the rooms were full. 47:03.134 --> 47:27.606 And so rather than going and complaining or going and asking someone else to move or so on, because of course he was a very senior and very important disciple of the Buddha, an important person, he was perfectly content to go and he took his robes and maybe he took some branches or something and he set up a tent and just slept under his robes for one night. 47:27.586 --> 47:40.165 When the Buddha found out, he wasn't so happy, and he put this rule down for monks to assign dwellings according to their seniority, or according to their role as well. 47:40.185 --> 47:46.915 So if someone's a teacher, then they shouldn't be moved, because they have to do many duties as far as teaching. 47:48.617 --> 47:52.423 The point is this contentment, and this is the kind of contentment that we need as monastics. 47:52.443 --> 47:57.390 It's the kind of contentment I was saying that we need when we go to Thailand, when we're going to Chamthong, because 47:58.130 --> 48:02.898 We may need, if they don't have rooms there, we may have to stay in a tent or stay in a field or something. 48:02.918 --> 48:03.860 We should be this content. 48:04.721 --> 48:09.770 When we arrive at a meditation center, we should be willing to accept whatever lodging that they give. 48:11.473 --> 48:13.497 If they give us a cave, we stay in the cave. 48:13.537 --> 48:16.181 If they give us a kutti, we stay in the kutti. 48:16.282 --> 48:18.405 So many different problems people have. 48:18.425 --> 48:21.150 Some people will be put in a cave and then be very... 48:21.873 --> 48:24.617 unhappy in the cave and think that they want to be in a luxurious room. 48:25.157 --> 48:28.942 People will be put in a luxurious room with its own bathroom and they'll feel like this isn't proper. 48:29.002 --> 48:31.325 I'm not a real meditator and they want to go live in the cave. 48:32.167 --> 48:33.328 All of this is discontent. 48:34.550 --> 48:38.355 And it's an important lesson for us as monks because we have different ideas. 48:38.375 --> 48:42.480 Some people think, oh, you need luxury or you need your own bathroom, you need your own place. 48:43.996 --> 48:48.062 And they'll think that this is correct to have your own space and so on. 48:48.082 --> 48:50.846 And some people will think you shouldn't have that kind of thing. 48:50.866 --> 48:55.392 You should go and live under a tree or you should go and live in a cave or you should live very rough and simply. 48:56.794 --> 48:58.857 And neither of these is actually what the Buddha taught. 48:59.678 --> 49:03.704 The Buddha taught us to be content with what we have, to be content with whatever is available. 49:04.806 --> 49:10.594 It's like the story of Kanna, the dark-skinned ascetic who is content with right where he was. 49:11.806 --> 49:14.409 It's actually one of the duttangas to be content with your dwelling. 49:14.790 --> 49:19.536 When you go to a monastery, whatever dwelling they give you, you take that dwelling. 49:19.556 --> 49:21.519 When I was in Jomtong, this was a big deal. 49:23.301 --> 49:25.784 We always had to move from one room to another. 49:25.804 --> 49:28.368 When a new meditator came, we would always give up our room. 49:28.388 --> 49:31.171 It's always like, no, no, no, there's no room. 49:31.211 --> 49:35.417 Everything is full of meditators coming from all over the country and all over the world. 49:36.157 --> 49:37.360 And so we would give up our rooms. 49:38.222 --> 49:44.197 The rest of us would find ways and I would often have to go and stay in the office in the computer room and so on. 49:44.217 --> 49:46.082 This is an important Buddhist practice. 49:46.102 --> 49:51.516 So we should never get these romantic ideas that we need to be in this or that space or this or that monastery. 49:52.340 --> 49:55.465 Even you can take this in terms of the need to go off in the forest. 49:55.525 --> 49:58.028 The Buddha never said there is a need to go off in the forest. 49:58.068 --> 49:59.450 He recommended it to us. 50:00.532 --> 50:13.931 If it happens that you have to live in a city or you have to live here or there, to be content is much more in line with the Buddha's teaching than to wish or to be discontent with your dwelling and feel like you have to go off in the forest. 50:13.951 --> 50:18.138 The reason, of course, that the Buddha encouraged to be in the forest is not anything intrinsic. 50:18.158 --> 50:20.541 It's just that in the forest there are fewer people. 50:20.521 --> 50:28.572 It's hard to be content in the forest, so people who have much discontentment will not be able to come and live in the forest. 50:28.833 --> 50:30.695 So we need much more living in the forest. 50:30.715 --> 50:39.728 We have to be content with the rain, we have to be content with the bugs, we have to be content with the dangers of the jungle and so on. 50:39.708 --> 50:43.097 We have to be content with the cold, content with the heat. 50:43.157 --> 50:45.464 We have to be content with all of this in the dwelling. 50:46.607 --> 50:52.182 And finally, we have to be content with our medicines. 50:53.798 --> 50:59.003 This is a big issue with monastics, but I think it's an even bigger issue with lay people now that I think about it. 50:59.643 --> 51:11.534 If you ever see old people, how they start to stock up on medicine, and they're taking medicine for absolutely everything, and they wind up becoming very much dependent on these medications. 51:12.515 --> 51:23.805 And it becomes a very important part of their life to take this medication, that medication, often just for pains and aches, or for lack of a certain vitamin or so on. 51:23.785 --> 51:28.814 which is all well and good, but becomes quite an obsession, becomes quite a requirement. 51:28.954 --> 51:39.111 So now, in the West, as the population is getting older, at least in America, there's a real concern for the ability to take care of people who get sick. 51:39.091 --> 52:02.888 But if you think about it, if people were able to take care of themselves and be patient with it, there are of course many situations where this isn't possible, but there are many situations where it is, and where people are actually, you could say, are taking advantage of the situation, of the programs that are in place to give free medicine and medication and so on, to really avoid many of the problems in life. 52:03.577 --> 52:08.022 So this also applies to ordinary people, that we shouldn't become obsessed with medication. 52:09.023 --> 52:10.826 Equally applies for mental sicknesses. 52:11.206 --> 52:24.842 People will be so quick to label, and doctors will be so quick to label our condition as this syndrome, that syndrome, this mental illness, that mental illness. 52:26.476 --> 52:34.064 So they can prescribe some medication, because really that's the only answer that some people have, is take this pill, take that pill, and it will solve your problem. 52:34.084 --> 52:35.485 So we become very dependent on this. 52:35.525 --> 52:41.592 And as patients, we tend to, or people tend to agree with this and accept this. 52:41.632 --> 52:42.272 What can you give me? 52:42.312 --> 52:45.315 Give me something, anything, to take the pain away. 52:46.436 --> 52:48.098 I remember a funny story, kind of related. 52:48.719 --> 52:51.842 There was a woman I know who... 52:53.122 --> 53:07.181 She got pregnant, and in the weeks leading up to her birth, she was so happy to know that she had decided to have a natural birth, and to not take any medication, any drugs, any painkillers, or anything. 53:07.541 --> 53:10.405 And she said she was going to bear it, and so she prepared herself as best she could. 53:10.986 --> 53:18.496 And she told us later that in the delivery room, she screamed at the doctor. 53:18.516 --> 53:20.058 She yelled, Give me something! 53:20.078 --> 53:20.799 Give me anything! 53:20.879 --> 53:21.880 Knock me out! 53:22.450 --> 53:34.421 And she got really angry at him and really mean with the doctor and saying, I don't, you stupid, or something like this, and swearing at him and so on, and saying, just give me something to take the pain away. 53:34.441 --> 53:41.508 So it's a good example because really we have to prepare ourselves. 53:42.589 --> 53:45.752 Our meditation practice is to prepare ourselves. 53:45.772 --> 53:48.395 There are very difficult things to bear in this life. 53:49.116 --> 53:51.698 And there are pains that we have and sicknesses that we have 53:54.209 --> 54:04.302 But the purpose of Buddhism is not to make a life where you can live without any sickness or without any trouble or difficulty. 54:04.703 --> 54:07.026 It's to be able to deal with the difficulty when it comes. 54:07.206 --> 54:08.708 Because eventually you can't stop it. 54:08.748 --> 54:20.503 Eventually you have a choice to become addicted to some sort of medication or drugs or way of practice, or to just live with it, to be content with what you have. 54:21.310 --> 54:23.092 Now, for monastics, this also applies. 54:23.813 --> 54:25.635 It's easy to find monastics. 54:25.655 --> 54:35.326 Sometimes when you go to different monasteries, you hear all the monastics will talk about is medicine, how they're taking this vitamin or that vitamin, how they're going to see the doctor about this or that. 54:35.847 --> 54:39.711 They can become very obsessed with their health because they don't have much more to obsess about. 54:39.731 --> 54:40.352 There's not much. 54:40.793 --> 54:44.077 They're living in the jungle, and so they become obsessed about their food. 54:44.137 --> 54:45.999 They become obsessed about their lodgings. 54:46.499 --> 54:49.663 They become obsessed about their robes and become obsessed about their... 54:49.643 --> 54:50.564 medicines. 54:50.984 --> 54:55.148 Very clearly this is why the Buddha was laying this down, this contentment. 54:55.749 --> 55:01.334 And in fact the Buddha said, as far as medicines go, we should be content with the most simple of medicines. 55:01.755 --> 55:03.216 Something that would shock most people. 55:03.837 --> 55:09.062 The Buddha taught us that we should be content to use urine as a medicine. 55:09.622 --> 55:17.510 This ancient Indian medicine that nowadays people would think is revolting, and certainly in the Buddha's time it would have seemed to many people quite revolting. 55:17.550 --> 55:19.532 We think of urine as some sort of waste product. 55:20.626 --> 55:22.749 The truth of it is that urine is not a waste product. 55:22.849 --> 55:25.953 It's something that the body has no need of. 55:26.213 --> 55:31.860 When the body uses all of the nutrients from the food, and there's still nutrients left, they become excreted in the urine. 55:32.340 --> 55:37.907 It's something like purified blood, and it does have medicinal properties, one's own urine. 55:39.029 --> 55:41.952 But the point is that this is the ultimate in contentment. 55:42.252 --> 55:50.042 If a person can be content to take only something like urine, maybe not just urine, but something like it, or things that are so easy to obtain, 55:50.022 --> 55:54.954 Of course, the Buddha gave allowance for whatever medicines are used in the country, you can use them. 55:55.776 --> 55:57.881 But the point is not what sort of medicine you take. 55:58.542 --> 56:07.423 Of course, if someone obsessed over taking urine and swore by it and every day was drinking their own urine or something, then you might think this is actually an attachment and a problem. 56:07.403 --> 56:08.645 The point is not what you take. 56:08.685 --> 56:11.328 The point is that you're content with what you have. 56:12.349 --> 56:30.593 And this is the ultimate contentment, to be content with rags for robes, to be content with alms for food, to be content with the foot of a tree for lodging or a forest dwelling, to be content with urine or the most simple and free medicines that exist. 56:32.817 --> 56:35.523 This is being content in regards to morality. 56:35.643 --> 56:40.654 It really has to do with our way of life and our interactions with the world around us. 56:41.295 --> 56:44.783 Contentment in regards to meditation practice. 56:45.885 --> 56:51.417 This is another very important topic for us to bring up because 56:51.397 --> 56:58.308 In modern days, meditators tend to look at meditation like a buffet, and they will pick and choose. 56:58.509 --> 57:05.901 They will try many different things, and they will end up with their own style of meditation, or they will end up moving from one style to another. 57:05.981 --> 57:12.311 And no meditation teacher that I've ever heard from will say this is a good thing. 57:12.752 --> 57:16.498 Again and again and again, every meditation teacher will tell you, stick to one practice. 57:16.558 --> 57:17.640 It's not a buffet. 57:18.616 --> 57:20.620 It's like taking paths up a mountain. 57:20.720 --> 57:30.739 Even if every path leads to the top of the mountain, which they may not, some may not, even if they did, you can't go up one for some time and then go back down and go up another one. 57:30.759 --> 57:32.342 You'll never get to the top of the mountain. 57:33.124 --> 57:40.658 And you should be very careful to not let discontent drive you away from a meditation practice. 57:40.638 --> 57:44.381 Because any meditation practice, any path that you choose is going to be difficult. 57:44.481 --> 57:46.103 It's going to have its ups and its downs. 57:46.583 --> 57:49.005 It's going to have its pluses and its minuses. 57:49.045 --> 57:52.849 There's going to be things that it does emphasize and things that it doesn't emphasize. 57:53.750 --> 57:57.813 You shouldn't be looking for a full range of meditation practice. 57:57.833 --> 58:01.196 You shouldn't expect to gain everything from the meditation practice. 58:01.216 --> 58:09.143 Some people are so discontent that when they find out that they're not going to be learning about past lives or magic or reading people's minds or 58:09.123 --> 58:13.510 or flying through the air, astral travel or so on, and they have no interest in the meditation. 58:14.451 --> 58:19.299 They have some huge expectations of gaining some spiritual result. 58:20.260 --> 58:23.545 Most people when they come into meditation have this to some extent. 58:24.146 --> 58:34.662 So when they sit in meditation and all that they experience is pain and aching and distraction in the mind, they can become quite discontent and they have no interest in practicing. 58:34.682 --> 58:37.206 They feel that there is something very important lacking. 58:37.186 --> 58:45.237 whether it be peace or calm or concentration or some special spiritual experiences. 58:45.277 --> 58:49.683 Some people are looking for pictures, they're looking for visions to arise and so on. 58:50.084 --> 58:51.606 Everyone is looking for something special. 58:52.447 --> 58:55.651 This is discontent in regards to the meditation practice. 58:55.671 --> 58:57.814 We should be content with whatever comes. 58:58.275 --> 59:05.505 And we should be content not only with whatever comes, which is very important, we should also be content with the core of the Buddha's teaching. 59:05.485 --> 59:09.872 The core of the Buddha's teaching is very easy to understand, that no Dhamma is worth clinging to. 59:09.892 --> 59:11.394 This is the Buddha's saying. 59:11.414 --> 59:12.095 This is the core. 59:12.696 --> 59:14.159 This is how you should train yourself. 59:14.860 --> 59:17.384 And it's the understanding of the four noble truths. 59:17.464 --> 59:19.507 It's the realization of the three characteristics. 59:19.928 --> 59:23.393 It's a very clear sort of meditation practice, the four foundations of mindfulness. 59:26.731 --> 59:29.515 And yet we want so much more that is not core. 59:29.856 --> 59:46.160 It's very clear in the Buddha's teaching that magic powers are not core, spiritual experiences are not core, visions are not core, remembering the past or learning about the future is not core, learning how to live your life and getting insight into this or that is not core. 59:46.180 --> 59:52.890 What is core is the realization of the truth that nothing is worth clinging to, and the letting go, and the being content, 59:52.870 --> 59:54.093 with things as they are. 59:54.493 --> 59:59.304 So the core of the meditation practice is to become content with things as they are. 59:59.364 --> 01:00:01.208 This is the actual practice. 01:00:01.548 --> 01:00:02.931 This is the core of the Buddha's teaching. 01:00:02.991 --> 01:00:08.483 Now, the problem comes when people are looking for something else in their meditation. 01:00:08.463 --> 01:00:25.038 So, first of all, we should be very content with whatever practice we have, as long as it's in line with these teachings, the four foundations of mindfulness and the three characteristics, to see impermanent suffering and non-self, so that we're not clinging to things as permanent, as satisfying, as controllable. 01:00:27.020 --> 01:00:38.250 And then we should be content with that teaching, not during the practice looking for more or becoming interested in special experiences or trying to gain some special experience. 01:00:40.154 --> 01:00:45.649 Being content in regards to wisdom means being content in regards to whatever results we get in the practice. 01:00:45.669 --> 01:00:48.015 This is another area of great discontent for people. 01:00:48.617 --> 01:00:55.395 They assume that the wisdom that we're talking about must be some profound intellectual realization where the mind starts to... 01:00:55.763 --> 01:00:59.407 develop new theories and new realizations about reality. 01:01:00.228 --> 01:01:09.337 The wisdom, Ajahn Chah was this Thai monk who got quite famous, said it the best when he said, this is frog wisdom, the wisdom that we're getting. 01:01:09.357 --> 01:01:14.983 It's very simple, very small, very low wisdom that we're gaining. 01:01:15.624 --> 01:01:19.027 In fact, the wisdom is the realization, as I said, of rising. 01:01:19.207 --> 01:01:21.670 When you know that the stomach is rising, this is wisdom. 01:01:22.257 --> 01:01:26.685 Because at the moment of knowing rising, you're knowing impermanence, you're knowing suffering, you're knowing non-self. 01:01:26.705 --> 01:01:29.950 You're not seeing that as permanent, because you see it arise and cease. 01:01:30.271 --> 01:01:32.495 You're not seeing it as satisfying, because it ceases. 01:01:33.076 --> 01:01:34.018 It doesn't go by. 01:01:34.058 --> 01:01:36.863 It's not something you can cling to. 01:01:37.644 --> 01:01:38.986 And it's not under your control. 01:01:39.046 --> 01:01:41.751 You see that it comes and it goes according to its nature. 01:01:41.731 --> 01:01:53.303 It's only when you string those momentary realizations together that your mind begins to let go, your mind begins to ease up, your mind begins to find freedom. 01:01:53.323 --> 01:01:57.947 So it's very easy for people to become discontent and think that they're gaining nothing from the practice. 01:01:58.048 --> 01:01:59.589 They feel like they're not gaining anything. 01:02:00.430 --> 01:02:01.671 I gave a talk recently on this. 01:02:01.691 --> 01:02:03.293 Someone said, I'm not gaining anything. 01:02:03.373 --> 01:02:04.474 I can't control my mind. 01:02:04.995 --> 01:02:07.317 These are two very different statements. 01:02:07.904 --> 01:02:10.087 You are seeing that you can't control your mind. 01:02:10.127 --> 01:02:14.212 This is an incredible realization, a very important realization. 01:02:14.232 --> 01:02:18.278 And yet you can still in the next sentence say, I'm not gaining anything from the practice. 01:02:18.298 --> 01:02:20.561 This is discontentment. 01:02:21.682 --> 01:02:26.068 It is the discontentment in the mind, because the mind comes with preconceived notions of what is wisdom. 01:02:26.108 --> 01:02:27.390 It must be something wonderful. 01:02:28.010 --> 01:02:29.452 And say, this is it, that's not wisdom. 01:02:29.492 --> 01:02:30.173 Where's the wisdom? 01:02:30.854 --> 01:02:32.476 And you're missing what is very important. 01:02:33.097 --> 01:02:36.021 The realization that you can't control your mind, so you should stop. 01:02:36.963 --> 01:02:42.872 You should stop living your life like you can control yourself, you can control other people, you can control the world around you. 01:02:42.912 --> 01:02:46.838 You can control things to be exactly the way you want. 01:02:48.561 --> 01:02:49.442 This is contentment. 01:02:50.884 --> 01:02:52.446 So this is santuti. 01:02:52.466 --> 01:02:54.870 The next one is katanyuta, means gratitude. 01:02:56.335 --> 01:03:01.525 Gratitude is something that I think many modern meditation practitioners don't realize. 01:03:01.605 --> 01:03:07.857 Many do, but you always will get people who don't understand it and think that people do things because they want to do them. 01:03:08.077 --> 01:03:10.802 If someone helps me, they do it because it makes them happy to do so. 01:03:12.325 --> 01:03:19.018 And that's sufficient for them to make them think that they shouldn't feel any need to do something in return for that person. 01:03:19.690 --> 01:03:21.573 But reality doesn't work like that. 01:03:21.593 --> 01:03:22.754 The truth, it is true. 01:03:22.794 --> 01:03:33.569 They've got it true insofar as when someone does something for someone else, my expectation is that I will become happy myself. 01:03:33.589 --> 01:03:36.673 So I'm not really doing anything for you. 01:03:36.713 --> 01:03:39.437 I'm doing it for myself in that sense. 01:03:41.493 --> 01:03:44.480 But that has nothing to do with how you should react to it. 01:03:44.761 --> 01:03:47.528 That doesn't say how you should react when someone does something for you. 01:03:47.548 --> 01:03:49.553 When someone does something for you, you have two choices. 01:03:49.593 --> 01:03:51.978 You can be grateful, or you can be ungrateful. 01:03:52.319 --> 01:03:57.612 You can appreciate the good things that they've done, or you cannot appreciate the good things that they've done. 01:04:00.764 --> 01:04:05.872 This has incredible consequences, first and foremost, on your own mind. 01:04:06.212 --> 01:04:16.227 When a person ignores the fact that other people have done good things for them and is not grateful for your parents having done good things for you, they wanted to do it, they loved me, that's why they did it. 01:04:17.248 --> 01:04:20.954 That's nothing to do with why you should be grateful for them. 01:04:20.974 --> 01:04:27.143 The gratitude is the correct way to respond to them whenever anyone does anything good for you. 01:04:28.237 --> 01:04:33.189 And so this is something that is incredibly important for us to develop as a mind state. 01:04:33.209 --> 01:04:35.574 It creates true peace and harmony in the mind. 01:04:38.321 --> 01:04:42.972 Whether it be our parents, our teachers, our friends, our supporters, even the lay people in the village. 01:04:43.762 --> 01:04:49.617 I know that often when they give us food, they're just thinking, this will be good luck for me, or this will let me go to heaven. 01:04:50.198 --> 01:04:52.504 That's nothing to do with why I'm grateful to them. 01:04:53.066 --> 01:04:54.690 I don't think, ah, why should I be grateful? 01:04:54.710 --> 01:04:55.733 They're doing it for themselves. 01:04:56.134 --> 01:04:58.259 I'm grateful because I've gained something from them. 01:04:58.279 --> 01:04:59.863 They've done something good for me. 01:05:00.653 --> 01:05:03.976 And that's a wholesome act of my own. 01:05:03.996 --> 01:05:05.358 That's my goodness there. 01:05:06.058 --> 01:05:09.802 If I'm ungrateful or I think, eh, it's nothing, they did it because they wanted to. 01:05:09.822 --> 01:05:10.703 This is stinginess. 01:05:10.763 --> 01:05:14.687 This is withholding the correct response. 01:05:15.228 --> 01:05:17.490 It's the same as when someone comes and asks you for something. 01:05:17.510 --> 01:05:25.378 If someone asks you for something, the correct response is, with wisdom, to, when possible and when correct, to give to them. 01:05:26.742 --> 01:05:30.585 It's the same reply that should come when someone gives something to you. 01:05:30.766 --> 01:05:34.269 When someone does something for you, you should at the very least feel grateful. 01:05:34.589 --> 01:05:37.352 It doesn't mean that you have to think, oh, now I have to do something for them. 01:05:38.012 --> 01:05:40.014 Often people try to abuse this. 01:05:40.594 --> 01:05:48.722 Meditation teachers will guilt trip their students and try to speak in roundabout ways about how I've taught you and therefore you should do this and that for me. 01:05:49.663 --> 01:05:50.563 This isn't what it means. 01:05:50.624 --> 01:05:53.967 It means the state of mind that is grateful. 01:05:54.007 --> 01:05:56.749 It doesn't mean that you have any obligation towards the person 01:05:56.729 --> 01:06:06.807 It means you have the obligation to react appropriately To think kindly of that person Whenever anyone has done something good for you 01:06:08.069 --> 01:06:10.252 This is first and foremost on your side. 01:06:10.313 --> 01:06:13.377 But there's another important aspect here, is the harmony that it brings. 01:06:13.758 --> 01:06:15.761 The harmony that gratitude brings. 01:06:16.582 --> 01:06:18.105 The good that it does for the other person. 01:06:18.365 --> 01:06:23.253 This person has gone out of their way to do something that benefits you. 01:06:24.555 --> 01:06:27.119 And then you reply by saying, well, thanks. 01:06:28.381 --> 01:06:35.933 Or have no sense of appreciation for them. 01:06:37.465 --> 01:06:44.421 And then what happens is that next time they'll have no inclination to do any good for anyone at all. 01:06:45.380 --> 01:06:51.087 This is what comes quite often when monks are ungrateful to the lay people or treat the lay people bad. 01:06:51.107 --> 01:07:08.930 The lay people, not that they get angry at the monks, they think, well, you know, he's the monk or so on, but they lose so much of the encouragement and the happiness that they had in giving when the monks are not appreciative, when the monks do not receive the food with appreciation. 01:07:09.330 --> 01:07:10.391 The same goes for a teacher. 01:07:10.451 --> 01:07:14.897 When you teach and you teach and you teach and people then, you know, 01:07:15.316 --> 01:07:18.897 argue with you and so on, or 01:07:20.260 --> 01:07:30.154 become disobedient and start picking out your faults and so on, you lose your encouragement to teach. 01:07:30.715 --> 01:07:36.683 This is a very important reason why the Buddha decided not to teach. 01:07:36.723 --> 01:07:39.968 You realize that it would be so tiring for him. 01:07:40.689 --> 01:07:46.217 He knew the defilements that people had, how there would be no appreciation for the teachings. 01:07:46.197 --> 01:07:50.183 appreciation which is very necessary to gain enlightenment. 01:07:50.283 --> 01:07:59.036 If you don't respect the teacher, if you don't respect the teachings, it will be very difficult for you to progress in the teachings. 01:07:59.056 --> 01:08:01.339 You'll just take a little bit and try it out. 01:08:03.202 --> 01:08:04.925 And you therefore won't advance. 01:08:06.206 --> 01:08:08.610 And so the Buddha saw this and he decided he wouldn't teach. 01:08:09.485 --> 01:08:19.832 And it was only when he was invited and he was told that he was requested to teach on behalf of those people who might understand in the world, people who might appreciate the teachings. 01:08:19.912 --> 01:08:21.115 And so he taught. 01:08:21.567 --> 01:08:28.296 It's a very good example of how at first the Buddha thought of teaching, and then he thought, oh, it's just going to cause so much suffering. 01:08:28.336 --> 01:08:30.058 So he backed off. 01:08:30.819 --> 01:08:34.384 This comes for us when we teach, and then people are unappreciative. 01:08:34.865 --> 01:08:36.948 It's very easy to become discontent. 01:08:36.968 --> 01:08:42.916 I mean, often it's because our teaching is not so good, or we're obviously not the Buddha, and I can't teach the Buddha. 01:08:42.936 --> 01:08:45.098 So sometimes people will say bad things, and you can feel it. 01:08:46.120 --> 01:08:48.503 You feel yourself giving up. 01:08:48.483 --> 01:08:57.435 But then you think, well, it's probably just because my teaching is not so good, so you train yourself and you try to be better at it the next time. 01:08:57.555 --> 01:09:00.179 But it's very important, very important to be grateful. 01:09:00.920 --> 01:09:09.852 Be grateful to people who support us in any way, whether it's by teaching with us or whether it's by giving us material gain. 01:09:09.952 --> 01:09:11.875 Even if someone gives you good advice, 01:09:12.108 --> 01:09:22.205 There's a story of the Bodhisatta and this woman was just saying something offhand about her son or something like that. 01:09:23.788 --> 01:09:28.776 And it made him think that, oh, having children is going to be a real burden for me. 01:09:29.237 --> 01:09:33.424 And so he was grateful and he gave her a gift as his teacher. 01:09:35.328 --> 01:09:42.219 And so this is this natural act, this feeling that this person is giving me good advice. 01:09:42.239 --> 01:09:44.483 When people do that, we should be grateful to us. 01:09:44.503 --> 01:09:50.132 It doesn't mean we should feel obligated to give them a gift or this or that, or pay them with money or something. 01:09:50.152 --> 01:09:58.125 Just the state of feeling grateful, and that if the opportunity arises, we will be inclined positively towards them. 01:09:59.247 --> 01:10:00.289 So katanyuta. 01:10:02.615 --> 01:10:15.630 The final one is Kalena Dhammasavanam, hearing the Dhamma on the right occasion, on various occasions, from time to time, you might say. 01:10:16.671 --> 01:10:17.712 So that's what we're doing here. 01:10:17.852 --> 01:10:20.155 Here we are listening to the Dhamma. 01:10:20.175 --> 01:10:23.679 And this is, the Buddha said, a great blessing. 01:10:23.719 --> 01:10:27.643 It's a very important part of our monastic life. 01:10:27.623 --> 01:10:31.247 As I've said before, it's important that our teachings go in one line. 01:10:31.307 --> 01:10:35.692 So in this monastery, we'll try to have our teachings come from the same source. 01:10:35.772 --> 01:10:40.057 We'll use the same set of teachings, and then we'll have the same tradition, and so on. 01:10:41.359 --> 01:10:50.509 Not because other traditions are wrong, but so that rather than being a buffet, we'll be going up this one course with the same vehicle. 01:10:50.489 --> 01:10:55.859 aware that there are other paths and other vehicles, but our vehicle will go to the top of the mountain. 01:10:55.919 --> 01:10:59.525 So we should have teachings on the truth from time to time. 01:11:00.046 --> 01:11:09.223 We should have teachings in regards to the meditation practice, teachings that will assist us and keep us on track, teachings that will encourage us. 01:11:09.203 --> 01:11:11.605 the many benefits of hearing the Dhamma. 01:11:11.625 --> 01:11:15.489 Hearing the Dhamma will allow you to hear things that you haven't heard before. 01:11:15.549 --> 01:11:22.315 It will allow you to gain understanding in things that you have heard before but didn't quite understand. 01:11:22.335 --> 01:11:26.358 It will give you right view when your views were wrong. 01:11:26.398 --> 01:11:30.062 And it will make your mind pure. 01:11:30.122 --> 01:11:37.388 If nothing else, hearing the Dhamma will make you happy, will make you feel at peace, will help you to give up your attachment, 01:11:37.520 --> 01:11:47.408 At the time when we're listening to the Dhamma, we're listening to even stories about the Buddha and stories about the monks, it gives us so much peace and encouragement in our minds that this is a very good thing. 01:11:47.428 --> 01:11:52.643 So what I want to say is from now on I'm going to try to have everyone 01:11:52.623 --> 01:11:53.524 give talks. 01:11:53.544 --> 01:12:06.316 So not just I will be giving talks, but I'm going to try to get the other people in our community to read something, perhaps some Buddhist sutta or Buddhist teaching or to read from a book that they're reading or so on. 01:12:06.977 --> 01:12:12.302 And then to give a short feeling on it, what they think of it or how it hits them. 01:12:13.023 --> 01:12:15.225 So to not be a teaching, but to be some gift of Dhamma. 01:12:16.586 --> 01:12:20.790 Because the point is not the teacher and the point is not the... 01:12:21.968 --> 01:12:29.277 The person, the point is the teaching, the point is the truth, that we should hear the teaching from time to time. 01:12:29.698 --> 01:12:33.783 Even if we hear the same things again and again and again, this can always be useful. 01:12:33.843 --> 01:12:40.631 So I know there are people who sometimes listen to talks on the Internet again and again and again, or there are the people who watch these YouTube videos. 01:12:41.692 --> 01:12:51.064 It's great to be able to provide this, and that there are many places on the Internet where people can gain access to various teachings and various traditions. 01:12:52.327 --> 01:12:56.035 So what we're doing here is something quite global. 01:12:56.055 --> 01:13:09.863 And that's the idea of this as well, is that there will be more than just my voice and my opinion and my ideas coming out, that there will be a variety and a broad base of teachings on what the Buddha taught. 01:13:11.092 --> 01:13:18.366 And this is the way that we become, as the Buddha said, savaka. 01:13:18.386 --> 01:13:21.573 You have this word savaka, which the Buddha used to describe his followers. 01:13:22.033 --> 01:13:24.037 But savaka comes from the verb to hear. 01:13:24.098 --> 01:13:29.348 It's the same root as the verb to hear. 01:13:29.368 --> 01:13:33.015 So it means those people who have heard the teachings. 01:13:32.995 --> 01:13:46.256 And the point here is that unless we're going to go off and learn everything there is to know about the world and realize and discover for ourselves the truth that the Buddha found, then we need to hear these truths from someone who already has. 01:13:46.456 --> 01:13:49.080 And this is the Buddha and the Buddha's disciples. 01:13:50.528 --> 01:14:08.853 So hearing the teachings from time to time and reminding ourselves about these good things and keeping our thoughts in line and keeping our thoughts focused on the teachings, having other people tell us or point out our faults to us and so on, is a very important part of our practice. 01:14:08.873 --> 01:14:14.781 It's really the means of progressing in the Buddha's teaching. 01:14:14.761 --> 01:14:17.323 So that's also another blessing. 01:14:17.864 --> 01:14:26.692 And altogether these make up another stanza and another group of the Buddha's teachings on blessing in the Mahamangala suttas. 01:14:26.712 --> 01:14:44.768 So I hope that this has been useful and that all the people listening here are able to take something away that can be useful in their life and in their practice to help them to gain all of these very positive qualities of having respect and not being disrespectful, to take things seriously that are worth taking seriously. 01:14:44.748 --> 01:14:55.618 to not be puffed up or conceited, to not think of ourselves as someone important and therefore to hurt others and to cause difficulty and problems for others. 01:14:57.843 --> 01:15:03.451 santuti, to be content with whatever we have and to not be looking for more, even more spiritual teachings. 01:15:03.812 --> 01:15:08.519 Another good example is how people are always asking for more videos. 01:15:08.659 --> 01:15:22.900 And I want you to be very careful, those people who are out there listening to this, and people here in the monastery who are always asking for more teachings, to be content with the teachings that you have and to put them into practice, rather than looking for more or wanting to study more and more and more. 01:15:24.703 --> 01:15:26.365 There was a story in the Jataka 01:15:27.577 --> 01:15:36.070 about this monk who just, in Dhammapada or the Jataka, I can't remember, about this monk who, all he knew, all he could remember was one verse. 01:15:37.413 --> 01:15:40.337 And whenever he gave a Dhamma talk, he would just repeat this verse. 01:15:40.357 --> 01:15:43.923 He would go and sit up on his Dhamma chair in the forest and repeat this verse. 01:15:44.604 --> 01:15:48.370 And he was so, he was an Arahant, I believe, and he was so... 01:15:49.683 --> 01:16:01.035 had so much conviction when he said it, and was so sure and so in line with this teaching, that every time he said it, the angels in the forest all went, sadhu, and the sound reverberated through the forest. 01:16:01.635 --> 01:16:09.824 Every time, so every week on the holy day, he would go up and give this verse, recite this verse, and then I guess lead them in meditation. 01:16:10.905 --> 01:16:13.648 And one day his friend came to see him, and 01:16:14.118 --> 01:16:16.042 and asked if he could give a Dhamma talk there. 01:16:16.122 --> 01:16:18.346 He said, okay, sure, you're welcome to give a Dhamma talk. 01:16:18.366 --> 01:16:25.339 He got up on the seat and he gave this long discourse, very intricate and detailed about all of the Buddha's teachings, because he knew very much. 01:16:27.122 --> 01:16:28.785 And at the end of the discourse he was silent. 01:16:30.250 --> 01:16:36.885 And he was like, why aren't the angels saying sadhu like they do for you? 01:16:37.727 --> 01:16:38.930 And they went to see the Buddha about it. 01:16:38.950 --> 01:16:42.197 And the Buddha was clear that it doesn't matter if you learn a lot. 01:16:42.217 --> 01:16:47.449 It's whether you actually practice and whether you have it in your heart. 01:16:48.762 --> 01:16:54.690 So the point is not to learn or to be looking for more teachings and more teachings and more teachings. 01:16:55.131 --> 01:17:07.588 From time to time it's useful to remind yourself of these things, but they can also become an addiction and a poor substitute for actual practice and meditation, and they will in the end be no substitute for actual practice. 01:17:07.729 --> 01:17:14.398 So I encourage everyone to take these teachings and actually put them into practice, and that you yourselves are able to 01:17:14.378 --> 01:17:19.798 find true peace happiness and freedom from suffering thank you for tuning in and wish you all the best